Groupwork is a fact of life in the corporate work force. As faculty members become increasingly aware of external expectations and more interested in active learning, the need for Groupwork Assessment grows. We all remember the high school version of groupwork where students who were regarded as less motivated parasitized the efforts of those who were more motivated. Groupwork Assessment makes performance expectations visible to all. By reducing the threshhold for expressing opinions, it allows students more readily to state the concerns ---and recognize the strengths--- that they collectively bring to a group.

This assessment should really be used in the early-middle of a project and again at the end. All groups have their disagreements; early assessment can help make real problems visible before they fester into disasters. This technique requests positive as well as negative feedback; it is not a mechanism for producing blame. A negative assessment without a cogent answer to Question 6 has not addressed what this assessment is really about.

Even if a group is having trouble, Groupwork Assessment works best when trust is high, confidentiality is assured, honesty is respected, and courtesy is maintained.

----T.A. Angelo and K. P. Cross, 1993. Classroom Assessment Techniques, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass., p. 349-51.

Groupwork Assessment

1. How many of the group members participated actively most of the time?

5. Give one specific example of something that other group members learned from you that they probably wouldn't have learned without you.

6. Suggest one specific, practical change the group could make that would help to improve everyone's learning.